Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops

I’m sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is the best way to refuse to do this?

Say you’re in xyz situation and a cop demands your phone. You say no. They get angry, maybe make some threats (whether true or not), etc.

What is the best way to say no, you aren’t comfortable, come back with a warrant, without pissing them off royally in such a way that things end up worse for you?

If you absolutely have to hand over your phone, turn it off completely, like hold the power button and then tap the off icon. That will dump any keys out of RAM, which is why it always requires the full password to unlock when you turn it back on. Both in terms of how your phone works and the leaks we've seen, the cracking tools the police have are overall significantly less likely to be successful when used on a phone that's been turned off and not unlocked since.

Also, IIRC iphones have a feature where they will dump at least some of the system keys from RAM if you push the lock button five times. I'd still trust fully off more but that's easier to do covertly.

Mark my words.

For many of us, this is a "No shit Sherlock" moment.

But in 10 years, we will have young people going "Uh what really?"

Remember when we used to say, "Don't put your name on the internet?" And now it's everywhere?

The more comments and news I read about the US the more Orwellian it feels.

You guys really need a massive left-shift away from the omnipresent government which regulates bodies more than companies.

To add to this, don't use bio-metrics to lock your devices. Cops will "accidentally" use these to unlock devices when they are forcibly seized.

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR PHONE

DO NOT TALK TO POLICE

Your ONLY responses should be to identify yourself, and "I will not make any statements without my lawyer present."

Permanently Deleted

All this makes it sound like police are giving you a bunch of time to respond and addressing you politely.

I mean, I agree on the principle. Don't just hand your phone over to... anyone, really. But the game becomes very different when a guy with a gun is hassling you over it.

Pro tip, if you suspect the police are going to take your phone, turn it off. As far as I am aware, finger print and face id do not work on initial startup and they can't compel you to enter your pin without a warrant.

Reminder: If you are in a situation where you’re presenting a digital ID to a digital ID reader, do not unlock your phone first. Tap your locked phone on the ID reader, then authenticate the document share.

But aPpLe CaRe AbOuT pRiVaCy

Is article mixing things or am I missing something?

You don't need to hand over your phone to present a digital ID. At least in my country the digital ID just creates a qr that the cop can scan to verify. There is no reason to hand over anything on the whole process.

It's not possible not to it you want to visit USA. If you don't, they'll reject your visa or deny entry. Thr only way is to use brand new cheap android before or after ( after is better ) and resell it once you go back. Most corporations do so

For iOS. You can just hold down the lock and volume up button and it will require your passcode. 5x lock works too but I feel the former is easier.

You can show your wallet with your phone locked. Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Allow access when locked > Wallet

*especially if you've got nothing to hide.

Duh.

They only need to be 500 miles near you, if they pay for the good juicy 2G exploits 😉

Seems like the cops should now be worried about civilian phones exploding and now might consider shooting anyone that tries to hand them a phone /s

I know this is obvious – but I also don’t want to have to purchase a printer to print out up to date proof of insurance.

My current plan is to just hand over the old/expired copy. Or I have to go through attempting to remember how to display a card from your Apple Wallet while it remains locked.

does this apply to other countries

No shit

I’m a cop and I can tell you that, at least in my country, you’d have no reason to not unlock your phone if you haven’t done anything.

I can understand that in some countries cops can be seen as criminals (and are behaving like criminals), but I don’t think a generality should be made. Just like a generality shouldn’t be made about people from an origin all doing the same bad thing.

Also don’t take advices from what you see on Lemmy as every user comes from a different country with different laws.

In my country, we can take your phone but we aren’t allowed to unlock it without your consent or without a prosecutor saying so.